K-10 was pinned to the ground.
The Flame Gajra’s massive paw pressed against his chest, forcing him into the earth. Heat radiated from the creature’s body, turning the air around him into a shimmering haze. K-10 gripped the beast’s paw with both hands and pushed, his muscles straining as he attempted to force the limb upward.
The weight was immense.
K-10 increased his strength.
The paw moved only slightly.
“It’s no use, human!”
K-10 stopped.
The beast had spoken.
His eyes widened slightly as he stared up at the Flame Gajra. Seralyth had mentioned that Divine Beasts were intelligent and capable of communicating, but K-10 had assumed such communication might involve some form of magical transmission. He hadn’t expected the creature to speak directly to him.
His attention returned to the paw pressing against his chest. The Flame Gajra possessed extraordinary physical strength, enough to restrain him despite his own enhanced capabilities.
K-10 looked back toward the creature’s face.
“You are the steward of the Northern Forest,” he said. “Why are you attacking people?”
The Flame Gajra remained silent.
Its paw stayed firmly planted against his chest. K-10 watched its eyes while maintaining his grip. The creature’s breathing was heavy, and flames continued to ripple across its body.
K-10 waited.
The beast gave no answer.
“Your role is to protect this forest.”
The Flame Gajra’s expression changed.
K-10 noticed it immediately.
The creature’s glowing red eyes began to fade, revealing a bluish color beneath them. The transition was subtle at first, but the change became more pronounced as the seconds passed.
K-10 studied it carefully.
The change wasn’t random.
The beast was hesitating.
“You don’t want to do this,” K-10 said.
The Flame Gajra’s eyes flickered between blue and red.
K-10 recognized the behavior. He had seen similar signs in people experiencing severe internal conflict. The creature’s body was still attacking him, but something within it appeared to be resisting the impulse.
“Something is influencing you.”
The Flame Gajra’s breathing grew heavier.
Its eyes became blue again.
For a brief moment, the rage seemed to disappear.
Then the blue vanished.
The creature’s eyes ignited crimson.
A deep growl rolled from its throat as its expression twisted with rage.
K-10 immediately pushed upward.
The Flame Gajra’s paw began to rise.
The creature reacted and pressed down harder.
The ground beneath K-10 cracked from the pressure.
His arms trembled as he resisted the additional weight. The muscles across his shoulders and chest strained beneath the force, but he continued pushing. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the massive paw began to rise again.
K-10’s strength was overcoming it.
The Flame Gajra snarled.
K-10 looked directly into its eyes.
Neither yielded.
Then the flame atop the Flame Gajra’s brow changed.
It intensified.
K-10 noticed the increase before he felt its full effect. The temperature around him rose sharply, and the remaining vegetation nearby began to dry and curl beneath the heat.
The flame grew larger.
Brighter.
Hotter.
It spread across the Flame Gajra’s head, spilling over its mane and shoulders before racing down the rest of its body.
Within seconds, the creature was engulfed in fire.
K-10 was engulfed with it.
He screamed.
The fire consumed every part of his body.
His armor ignited beneath the intense heat. The materials surrounding the Lunarium plates burst into flames almost instantly, burning away before evaporating into the inferno. Straps, fabric, fasteners, and every other component that could not withstand the temperature disappeared within moments.
Only the Lunarium plates endured.
K-10’s skin began to sear beneath them.
The heat penetrated through the remaining gaps in his armor, scorching his flesh. His skin blistered and blackened as the flames continued to engulf him.
His hair caught fire.
Then his eyes.
He could no longer see.
K-10 tried to breathe.
The first breath filled his lungs with smoke and scorching air.
He coughed violently.
His lungs began to collapse beneath the extreme temperature.
The pain was unlike anything he had experienced before.
K-10 had endured gunshot wounds, broken bones, deep lacerations, explosions, and injuries that would have killed an ordinary human. He had experienced the sensation of a blade piercing through his heart.
None of them compared to this.
Being burned alive was not a single source of pain. It was everything at once.
Every nerve was screaming.
Every breath was agony.
Every attempt to move exposed another part of his body to the flames.
The heat continued to penetrate deeper.
Through his skin.
Through his muscles.
Through his organs.
Into his bones.
K-10’s body responded.
His regenerative ability activated almost immediately.
Damaged tissue began repairing itself. Burned flesh regenerated. Destroyed tissue rebuilt. His lungs began recovering enough to function.
Then the flames destroyed them again.
His body repaired itself.
The fire burned through the newly regenerated tissue.
His lungs recovered.
The smoke and heat destroyed them again.
The process repeated.
K-10 tried to endure it.
He had been trained to compartmentalize pain. To ignore injury. To continue operating when his body demanded that he stop. His mind had been conditioned to maintain control under circumstances designed to break it.
None of that mattered here.
There was no objective to complete.
No enemy to neutralize.
No tactical solution.
Only the fire.
K-10 screamed again as another wave of heat tore through him.
His body repaired itself.
The flames consumed him again.
Repair.
Burn.
Repair.
Burn.
Every regeneration restored his body just enough for the fire to destroy it again.
The cycle had no end.
K-10’s breathing became erratic.
His thoughts began to fragment.
He attempted to focus on the Flame Gajra, but its shape was becoming difficult to maintain in his mind. His thoughts drifted between incomplete observations and sensations of pain.
His training surfaced automatically.
Assess the threat.
Identify the weakness.
Determine an escape route.
None existed.
His calculations became meaningless.
His thoughts slowed.
His body continued to burn.
K-10’s consciousness began to fade.
Every form of mental conditioning he had received throughout his life had prepared him for pain, torture, injury, exhaustion, and psychological pressure. It had prepared him to remain functional when another person would have broken.
It had not prepared him for this.
There was a limit to what the human mind could endure.
K-10 had reached it.
Reason began slipping away.
His training no longer mattered.
His calculations no longer mattered.
Even the instinct to survive began to disappear.
Anyone would have broken under this much pain, regardless of discipline, strength, or determination. The human mind was not built to endure an experience like this.
K-10’s consciousness continued to fade.
His body kept burning.
His will to live disappeared with it.
Then something changed.
His body stopped regenerating.
K-10 couldn’t understand why.
The damage should have continued.
Instead, the flames were no longer causing it.
His skin remained intact.
The fire still surrounded him, but it was no longer searing through his flesh.
His body was resisting the damage.
The change spread through him.
The Flame Gajra’s flames intensified further.
The creature had reached the peak of its flame affinity.
Heat radiated from its body with such intensity that the surrounding air distorted violently. The ground beneath them began to glow, and vegetation nearby ignited as the beast poured everything it had into the attack.
The fire burned like the sun.
Yet K-10 felt nothing.
The flames continued to engulf him.
There was no pain.
His skin was no longer burning.
His organs were no longer being damaged.
His bones were unaffected.
His body was simply resisting the heat.
K-10 slowly opened his eyes.
The inferno remained around him.
He could see the flames again.
They moved across his body without causing injury.
His regeneration had stopped because there was nothing left to repair.
The Flame Gajra continued to pour its power into the attack, but the result remained unchanged.
K-10 was no longer being harmed.
He stopped resisting.
Not because his will had broken, but because there was nothing left to resist.
Relief replaced the agony that had consumed his mind.
K-10 allowed his body to go limp and lay sprawled across the ground.
The Flame Gajra gradually lessened its heat.
The intense flames surrounding the creature diminished as its affinity output returned toward normal. The massive paw lifted from K-10’s chest.
The Flame Gajra looked down at him.
K-10 did not move.
The beast stared at the motionless human for several seconds.
It appeared satisfied.
The human was dead.
The Flame Gajra turned away from K-10 and began walking toward the soldiers and Seralyth.
K-10 opened his eyes.
Almost nothing remained of his clothing. His body was nearly completely exposed, with only the pieces of armor that had withstood the flames still attached to him. The surviving Lunarium plates were blackened but otherwise intact.
He slowly examined himself.
His skin was undamaged.
His lungs functioned normally.
There was no pain.
K-10 shifted his gaze toward the Flame Gajra as it approached the others.
He remained on the ground for another moment, silently processing what had just happened.
Then he quietly spoke to himself.
“The classification for the Flame Gajra is S-rank.”